by Ani Janakiraman ’26 and Caleb Kim ’26
Picture this: the clashing of blades, the movement of swift footwork, and the thrill of hearing the meter’s ding, knowing that you’ve outsmarted your opponent. That’s fencing—a blend of athleticism, strategy, and discipline.
Despite its uniqueness, fencing is a sport that often does not receive the same recognition as the more popular sports known throughout the country, like basketball or football. In fact, the Daily Pennsylvanian confirms that “USA Fencing only has around 40,000 registered members, contrast with the more than 26 million Americans that play basketball regularly, according to a study from the National Sporting Goods Associations.
However, one Bellarmine student that has been going against this trend since he was in first grade is sophomore Ryan Kim. Kim explained that he “started fencing between the summer of first and second grade, and [he’s] been doing it for more than nine years.” When asked about his initial interest in the sport, and he told the Online that “one of [his] dad’s co-workers was a fencer, and fencing was a more interesting sport compared to basketball and soccer. I fell in love with it immediately.” The unique aspects of fencing, like the sword-fighting, stood out to Kim because it made him feel like he could be part of “Star Wars or the Pirates of the Caribbean. The rules are harder to understand at first and [fencing’s] much more complex. It’s widely known as physical chess.”
Just like how football, basketball, and baseball players watch film to improve their play on the field, Kim explained that getting better at fencing isn’t just about attending practices, but rather “watching fencing videos and analyzing the techniques of top fencers.” Kim started fencing in elementary school to see whether it was an activity that he could fully commit to, but ever since middle school, he has been fencing competitively at national tournaments, training five days a week, and watching his own bouts – rounds of competition in tournaments – through his recordings.
Kim also told us that oftentimes, the results for his fencing tournaments are not linear, and that they can skyrocket at certain tournaments and stagnate at others. But the important part for young fencers, he tells us, is “to keep pushing through it and to keep working harder to change for the better.”
Certainly, Kim has significantly improved in his fencing abilities as he has gotten older, and his results reflect that. He feels proud of his recent results where he’s gotten second place at the junior Olympics, a national tournament consisting of top-ranked fencers. And although he believes that victory can certainly correlate to happiness, Kim still enjoys fencing to the maximum, regardless of the wins that he’s achieved. Even taking second place the junior Olympics, the highest and most prestigious tournament for young fencers, Ryan believes that he has not reached his peak and full potential yet. He wants to keep improving and seeing how he can improve for the foreseeable future.
Finally, when asked about his aspirations beyond high school, Kim told us that he “wants to gain admission into a college that has a fencing program, so [he] could potentially continue it there.” Looking towards the future, fencing is an important part of his life, and competing in college would mark another successful point in his fencing career.